We are excited to share some presentation descriptions for the first day of the Forum (Tuesday, February 8)!

Envisioning Safety on Post-Secondary Campuses: How Did We Get Here, and Where Are We Going?

Tia Wong (Co-Chair) and Kelsey Friesen (Outreach Lead) of Students for Consent Culture Canada (SFCC) set the stage for the 2022 Forum with a brief introduction of their organization and their work as well as the student anti-sexual violence movement. They will establish the importance of the Forum’s topics – reimagining policy, addressing securitization, understanding transformative justice, and implementing student supports to create community safety on campuses.

A Discussion of the Culture and Perspectives on a Sexual Assault Policy Project from Nova Scotia

CAPSAP (Culture and Perspectives on a Sexual Assault Policy) is a research project undertaken by four Universities in Nova Scotia (Mount Saint Vincent University, Dalhousie University, Cape Breton University, and St. Mary’s University) to review the universities’ sexual assault policies and make recommendations to increase their cultural inclusivity. This project is led by Principal Investigator Dr. KellyAnne Malinen from Mount Saint Vincent University and is funded by the Nova Scotia Department of Labour and Advanced Education, SSHRC, The Delmore Buddy Daye Learning Institute, and Mount Saint Vincent University. The aim of this research is to educate policy makers and university staff about various cultures' perspectives and represent the diverse student population studying at Nova Scotian Universities.

"Trust your gut and do it yourself": Resisting Securitisation and Co-Optation at Post-Secondary Institutions

If campus safety is so important, why are campuses so unsafe for so many? What is "securitisation" and how is it connected to wider patterns of oppression in our society? What can students do to fight gender violence, without depending on police and other forms of carceral power? In this presentation, I reflect on what makes strategies of resistance to securitisation necessary, accessible, legible, and effective. While #MeToo changed the conversation about gender violence, many institution-led antiviolence initiatives remain superficial public relations exercises that empower policing and sideline student-survivors. As an alternative, I argue for the enduring importance of grassroots organising, community knowledge, anonymous guerilla tactics, keeping survivors at the centre, and building alliances across struggles, especially the struggle against police brutality. In the movement to end gender violence, achieving more widespread understanding and support for abolitionist politics is at a key turning point, and student-survivor organising has enormous potential to drive it forward. In support of this discussion, I draw on the voices and perspectives of students who participated in two key community research projects led by SFCC: the Crucial Voices report for the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence (2021), and the forthcoming Open Secrets report and toolkit on faculty sexual violence at Canadian post-secondary institutions. 

This presentation is grounded in 20 years of experience as a campus antiviolence organiser, researcher, educator and frontline supporter of survivors. It is indebted to the neverending work by BIPOC, Antiracist, Queer, DisAbled and feminist activists, to hold states, police and other institutions accountable for the violence inflicted on certain bodies in the name of "community safety."